Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of the coolest toys we’ve seen on this here internet lately. This week: Comic-Con exclusive mania continues, Fantastic Beasts finds itself an extremely clever Lego set, and the best incarnation of the Justice League assembles on your toy shelf. Check it out!
Lego Batman Mech vs. Poison Ivy Mech
Before you get too excited, this particular set won’t be available until January 1, 2019. Lego is using San Diego Comic-Con to make a few other announcements about upcoming releases, including this Batman vs. Poison Ivy mech showdown. The 375-piece, $40 set features the Dark Knight in a towering robotic exoskeleton complete with opening cockpit and a giant saw blade on one arm, while Poison Ivy’s mech makes it look like she’s stuck in a tree, possibly awaiting rescue by Bats. The set also comes with Firefly and the Flash minifigures, although they will be doing battle without the assistance of giant mechs.
Mezco Toyz King Kong of Skull Island 7-Inch Figure
Ray Harryhausen didn’t have computers or robotics to help bring King Kong to life back in 1932. He had to rely on an articulated puppet and painstaking stop-frame animation techniques to create the film’s groundbreaking effects. Mezco’s new seven-inch King Kong of Skull Island figure looks far more vicious than Harryhausen’s puppet did, but with 25 points of articulation and swappable hands and head, for $40 you can potentially shoot your own stop-motion King Kong remake, assuming anyone still has that amount of patience any more.
DC Collectibles Justice League Action Figures
Yesterday DC unveiled what it was going to be offering as part of DC Universe, its upcoming streaming service: original programming; archives of classic shows, movies, and cartoons; and curated comic collections. What’s more, it’ll allow access to exclusive DC Merchandise… like, say, these awesome figures made in the style of the beloved Justice League animated series. Available starting this fall, DC Universe subscribers will be able to pick up 6″-scaled, fully articulated recreations of the complete main team as it was at the time of Justice League Unlimited: Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, the Flash, and Aquaman. There’ll likely be more, and there’s currently no word just when or if these figures will ever be sold outside of DC Universe. [Toyark]
Hot Wheels Marvel Thanos Helicopter
Few comic book characters have rides as cool as Batman’s Batmobile. At Comic-Con last year, Hot Wheels immortalized Spider-Man’s bizarre dune buggy as a tiny die-cast toy, and at this year’s con it’s doing the same thing with Thanos’ impossibly campy helicopter. Yep, the most powerful comic book villain of all time took to the skies back in 1979 in a vehicle “cleverly” dubbed the Thanos Copter. You can add this die-cast version of the chopper to your fleet for $15 if you find yourself at Comic-Con this year, or from Mattel’s online shop after the show is over.
Lego BrickHeadz Guardians of the Galaxy Rocket and Groot
At this point it’s clear that Lego has aspirations of overtaking Funko when it comes to releasing collectible caricatures of various pop-culture characters. It’s still got a long way to go, but these adorable Lego versions of Groot and Rocket Raccoon (are those Wolverine’s claws used as whiskers?) prove it’s on the right path. And you know the LegoBrickHeadz drill by now, $20 for the two-pack, available sometime this year.
ThinkFun Shadows in the Forest Board Game
Turn out the lights and iconic board games like Monopoly or Scrabble become impossible to play. So for those times when you find yourself riding out a power outage, or even while camping, ThinkFun’s new $25 Shadows in the Forest should be a part of your collection. It can only be played in the dark, with one player controlling the Seeker—a tiny glowing lantern—who’s trying to find and freeze the other players’ Shadowlings who are able to hide in the shadows created on the game board. As the Seeker moves, the shadows change, allowing the Shadowlings to navigate the board and eventually group together to win. But victory can be thwarted by the Seeker if it’s able to illuminate all of the Shadowlings first.
[ThinkFun]
Lego Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures
Newt Scamander’s magical briefcase is the star of this new 694-piece, $50 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Lego set. As it does in the movie, the case opens to reveal Newt’s portable menagerie, featuring habitats for included buildable beasts like an erumpent, occamy, thunderbird, as well as a niffler. The set also comes with four Lego minifigures, including Newt, Jacob Kowalski, and Tina and Queenie Goldstein. It doesn’t appear as if all the animals and characters can squeeze into the case once it’s closed, unless you’re willing to disassemble and reassemble them each time.
Hasbro FurReal Friends – Ricky the Trick Lovin’ Pup
Like a car maker annually rolling out a new and improved model, year after year Hasbro updates its FurReal Friends line with upgraded animatronics, more realistic movements, and better interactive features. However, we’re not sure how the toymaker is going to top Ricky, a $130 robotic pup that can lick your face, munch on treats, and then poop them out afterwards. This year’s Toy Fair brought us lots of gross-out toys, many poop-themed, so it only makes sense for Hasbro to capitalize on the trend. And if your kids have always wanted a real dog, this is a great way to teach them how to responsibly clean up after a pup, before your home is filled with real deposits.
[Hasbro]
